Sequence Managers are widely used for controlling the sequencing and duration during runtime of components on mixed-mode (i.e. analog and digital) IC's, such as transceivers, used in portable devices. When the sequence manager receives a transmit/receive trigger, it enables various components for various durations according to a pre-programmed sequence in order to reduce power drain on the transceiver IC as a whole, allowing for reduced battery consumption and preventing component error due to noise spikes. Additionally, sequence managers help reduce power surges caused by warm-up and warm-down of the various components that need to be enabled for a particular operation such as transmitting or receiving data.
Prior art sequence managers are designed to allow a minimum amount of control of the sequence process by allowing some control signals to be written into on-chip memory. These control signals allow the user to manipulate the duration between enabling some of the components or sub-blocks as well as allow limited control over the enabling sequence order. To simplify the implementation, conventional sequence managers are developed with certain restrictions as to what the user can program in order to make sure sub-blocks are properly enabled.
Because of these limitations, testing of sub-blocks controlled by the sequence manager is cumbersome. A user cannot gain full control of an individual sub-block and must efficiently utilize the control signals to gain the best available testing conditions for any given sub-block. This requires extensive knowledge of all sub-blocks and their interactions. Additionally, even by optimizing the test conditions by properly programming the control signals, complete control of the on-chip components cannot be achieved because the sequence manager has built-in limitations on control flexibility. What is needed is a sequence manager that allows for testing individual sub-blocks and allows for complete individual control of the sub-blocks for testing purposes while also allowing for greater sequence management control during normal operation.